The debates over on-campus teaching & complaints about contact time are revealing a profound misunderstanding of what education is among some students & the management blithely encouraging them. Education isn’t something teachers give students. They’re catalysts in a process. 1/4

The rhetoric of knowledge transfer distracts from the real value of education at uni level, which is to foster & promote intellectual curiosity & independent learning. Lecturing is only a very small part of that. Mostly, it’s about sparking that engagement more indirectly. 2/4

That could be by playing devil’s advocate in seminars & supervisions or by setting well designed tasks to be completed between classes that guide students in learning how to learn. Above all let’s trust that most teachers have a pretty good idea of how to nurture learning. 3/4

I’ve often maintained that one of the key elements of the art of teaching is knowing when to have a light touch. Sometimes you light a fire, but mainly you brush gently. Teaching shouldn’t be authoritative or didactic but the art of making space for conversation. 4/4